Bill Belichick’s propensity for drafting Rutgers players is well known. But Belichick hasn’t selected and signed those former Scarlet Knights to the New England Patriots because of their fancy red uniforms, or because he knows they ate sandwiches from the New Brunswick, N.J., Grease Trucks during their years on the Rutgers campus.

Belichick likes those players because he trusts their college coach. If Devin McCourty and Logan Ryan could play, and survive, in Greg Schiano’s program, they will probably follow the no-nonsense “Patriot Way.”

That’s why Belichick doesn’t always take the most talented player available when the Patriots are on the clock in the NFL draft, which has driven Patriots fans mad ever since Belichick took over as head coach and general manager in 2000.

Belichick dropped a quote bomb before the 2013 season started: “We like to say that dependability is more important than ability.”

Suddenly, everything made sense. That quote single-handedly explained why the Patriots spent a third-round pick on Duron Harmon in the 2013 draft (a pick that, after one year, has worked out quite well).

Belichick drafted Harmon because he could depend on him. He had talked to him, his son knew him from his days as a Rutgers walk-on, and, if Harmon could survive at Rutgers, he could survive being on the Patriots with Belichick.

Belichick’s coaching tree hasn’t flourished in the NFL, but it’s done just fine in the college ranks. And the better that Belichick’s favorite college coaches fare, the more set the Patriots will be for the future.

Some think that Belichick’s drafting choices are driven by pure madness, but there is a certain method to his approach. When Belichick likes a college coach, he’s more apt to draft players from that school’s program.

Sometimes that coach is a branch from the Belichick tree — like Nick Saban, Al Groh, Pat Hill, Charlie Weis, Bill O’Brien and Kirk Ferentz — while some are coaches Belichick just trusts — like Schiano, Urban Meyer, Brian Kelly and Randy Edsall. Check out a sampling of players Belichick has drafted from trusted programs below.

Pay attention to prospects from schools Belichick knows and trusts in the 2014 NFL draft. Right now, those would include Alabama (Saban), Iowa (Ferentz), Notre Dame (Kelly), Penn State (players O’Brien coached), Ohio State (Meyer) and Kansas (Weis). Rutgers and Oregon are still worth paying attention to, as well, since players Schiano and Chip Kelly coached and recruited are still around.

Check out the players from those schools that NFLDraftScout.com considers draftable below.

Belichick’s relationship with Brian Kelly is a new one. The Notre Dame coach asked Belichick for advice after the Fighting Irish lost to Alabama in the 2013 BCS National Championship. Kelly later attended a Patriots training camp practice during the summer. Belichick and Kelly will play together in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am next week.

This is the year to draft as many Notre Dame prospects as possible, especially in the earlier rounds.

The players listed above should fit the outline of any Patriots mock draft this offseason. At least one or two likely will wind up on the Patriots’ roster for the 2014 season.

Belichick has trusted sources to find out intricacies about those players that sometimes scouting reports and pre-draft meetings can’t show. He can ask how they practiced, how much they love football, how well they take criticism and coaching, and how much they’ve improved.

Belichick’s Rutgers connection might be drying up, but he’ll find his new trusted program soon.